CRYSTAL CHINEA
Personal Bests:
5K - 18:30
10K - 39:21
Half Marathon - 1:23:15
Marathon - 2:57:32
Proudest running achievement in 2018: In March 2017, I jumped into my current career full time. It averages 12 hour days, 5 days a week. After almost two years of struggling to balance my new career and running (finally taking a year off of from running), I decided to start training again in April 2019. My mantra was “No Excuses”. I needed to train as if I was back in school and had no choice but to attend the practices. I chose a marathon in July, so already I didn’t set myself up with enough time to train efficiently. My goal was to run a sub 3:20:00 and get back my Boston qualifying time. Race day I wound up finishing 3:12:07, giving me the confidence I needed to officially jump back into competitive running!
Goals for 2019 and Beyond:
My long term goal would be to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Trials. My short term goals would be to break 3:00 at the Houston Marathon. If I break 3:00 at Houston, I will race the NYC Marathon in the fall!
College: I was born and raised in El Paso, TX. Northeast to be specific (El Pasoans know!). I started running in Terrace Hills Middle School, continued in Andress High School, but I fell in love with my sport when I moved to Montwood High School. I did not continue running in college and didn’t attend a large University that had a team, so I proudly wear my Montwood Green! We had one of the best cross country teams in the city and (at the time) were the only school with GREEN as a school color. In 2008 I moved to Arlington, TX and my high school coach digitally coached me to my first marathon race in 2010 back home in El Paso, TX. (I earned my first Boston Qualifying time in that race!)
Career: Easiest way to explain it is I work on film sets. Movies, commercials, and TV shows. My title fluctuates depending on the job, but I mainly work as freelance film crew in the production department. We focus on the logistical side of filming and are basically in charge of getting things ready before anybody steps on to a film set, as well as helping things run smoothly while filming. From picking up the equipment and rental vehicles to setting up tables & chairs and charging walkies. Usually the random miscellaneous tasks that nobody really thinks need to happen, they expect it to already be done!
Recently I worked as a Directors Assistant on the Fort Worth movie “12 Mighty Orphans”. I worked closely with the Producers and Director daily. This gave me the opportunity to see the film build from 5 weeks of prep to 2 months of filming. My tasks included: maintaining list of current cast members, updating storyboard files, scheduling meetings and events for Director, setting up a video tent daily for Producers to watch filming, intercepting other department emails to director and assisting him in decisions, etc.
My goal is to one day become a Producer on film sets.